Hymen Lipman

Hymen L. Lipman
Born(1817-03-20)March 20, 1817
Kingston, Jamaica
DiedNovember 4, 1893(1893-11-04) (aged 76)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, US
OccupationStationer
Known forPatent of the first pencil with attached eraser

Hymen L. Lipman (March 20, 1817 – November 4, 1893) was an American stationer and inventor credited with registering the first patent for a pencil with an attached eraser on March 30, 1858.[1]

Early life

Hymen L. Lipman was born in Kingston, Jamaica, on March 20, 1817,[2] to Lewis Lipman, an English merchant.[3][4] Lyman immigrated to the US around 1829, arriving and settling in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He resided in Philadelphia for the remainder of his life.

Career

1860 advertisement for Lipman's stationery business

In 1840, Lipman succeeded Samuel M. Stewart, then the leading stationer in Philadelphia. Three years later, he started the first envelope company in the US.[4]

In 1862, Lipman sold his lead-pencil and eraser patent for $100,000 to Joseph Reckendorfer, who went to sue the pencil manufacturer Faber for infringement.[5] In 1875, the US Supreme Court ruled against Reckendorfer, declaring the patent invalid because his invention was actually a combination of two already known things with no new use.[6]

Personal life

In 1848, he married Mary A. Lehman, daughter of Peter K. Lehman, one of the founders of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy.[3][4] Their children where Mary, Lewis, and Anna Elizabeth "Lillie" Lipman.[3][7]

Lipman died at his Philadelphia home November 4, 1893, aged 76,[2] and his wife a year later. Both were buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery.[8] Some sources have described him or his family as Jewish,[9] yet Haaretz notes a contemporary obituary describes him as a "self-sacrificing Christian" and his and his wife's gravestone epitaphs contain Christian quotes.[8] His contemporary obituary in the Philadelphia Inquirer states he was a secretary of the Philadelphia Sabbath Association, an elder at Philadelphia's Clinton Street Presbyterian Church and later a member of the Grace Protestant Episcopal Church.[3]

References

  1. ↑ U.S. patent 19,783 at Google Patents
  2. 1 2 "Obituary. Hymen L. Lipman". The Paper Trade Journal. Vol. 22, no. 46. November 18, 1893. p. 1029.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Hymen L. Lipman's Death; Years of Good Work in Church and Business Circles". The Philadelphia Inquirer. November 11, 1893. p. 4.
  4. 1 2 3 Hingston, Sandy (March 30, 2016). "11 Things You Might Not Know About Pencils". Philadelphia Magazine. Retrieved May 19, 2026.
  5. ↑ Petroski, Henry (1990). The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 171. ISBN 0-394-57422-2. ISBN 0-679-73415-5
  6. ↑ Reckendorfer v. Faber, 92 U.S. 347 (Supreme Court of the United States 1875). Retrieved May 18, 2026 – via Justia.
  7. ↑ Levering, John (1897). Levering Family: History and Genealogy. Indianapolis: Levering Historical Association. p. 460.
  8. 1 2 Green, David B. (March 30, 2016). "1858: Hymen Lipman gets patent on the eraser-pencil". Haaretz.
  9. ↑ Byrne, Kerry J. (March 30, 2024). "On this day in history, March 30, 1858, American visionary Hymen Lipman patents pencil with eraser". foxnews.com. Fox News. Retrieved May 18, 2026.
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